The Guardian (The Wolfe Series) Read Online Free

brushing that much.
                  The smile left her face when the front door bell rang and she reluctantly walked to the door and opened it, knowing she was going to be in for a lecture. 
                  Julie Simpson’s bright blue eyes widened when her protégé opened the door and stepped aside for her to enter. 
    “My goodness,” Julie said, glancing down at her watch.  “Eleven in the morning and still in your bathrobe, I see.”  Julie was petite, almost a head shorter than Laurie but carried herself with confidence and poise.  Her lemon yellow business suit was the height of fashion, her auburn hair arranged in a loose knot at the back of her head and she carried a Hermes handbag and matching shoes.  She was the epitome of the successful New York business woman, everything Laurie didn’t want to be, and also Laurie’s agent.
    “I like to be comfortable when I write,” Laurie waved her hand at the small desk that held her laptop as she made her way toward the kitchen where a tea kettle sat atop a two-burner stove.  “Would you like some tea?”
    “No thanks.  I’ve got a luncheon appointment.”  Julie looked around the tiny apartment and shook her head before taking a seat on the hide-a-bed and placing her handbag on the floor.  “You really could afford something better than this, you know.  You’re books are selling very well and should continue to do so.”
    Laurie turned the gas on under the tea kettle and reach ed into an open cupboard above her head and took down her favorite teacup.  The teacup was bone china with hand painted roses, the only thing that she had of her mothers and it was precious to her. She remembered the smile that had covered her mother’s beautiful face when she had sipped tea from that same fragile cup – that was before the accident that had changed Laurie’s life forever, the accident that had claimed her parent’s and brother’s lives. 
    The years in various foster homes after the accident had taught her not to trust people and had almost made her wish that she’d been with her parents and brothers that day and killed in the accident right along with the rest of her family.  But she hadn’t been, and now she lived vicariously trying to replace the love she’d lost through the various characters in the romance novels that she wrote. 
    Julie Simpson was one of the only people that she’d allowed to get close to her since the death of her best friend Sheila from a drug overdose.  She and Sheila had been as close as if they’d been born sisters.  Laurie was shy and introverted while Sheila was an extrovert with all of the emotions and sometimes unwise decisions inherent in that trait.  Sheila wasn’t afraid to try anything, was very competitive and gradually succumbed to the lure of the drugs that had finally taken her life.  Laurie had been devastated by her friend’s death and had refused to go to the funeral, had refused to watch Sheila being put into the ground.  She hadn’t spoken for months after her friend’s death and also refused to get close to another human being again for fear of losing them, too.
    “You really need to get out more,” Julie said, breaking into Laurie’s reverie.  “I’ll pick you up Friday night at seven o’clock.  And wear something sexy, we’re going to a club I know that I think you’ll like.”
                  “You know I’m not really into the club scene.”  Laurie took her empty cup to the sink and carefully washed and dried it before placing it back in the cupboard.
                  “Nonsense, it’ll be fun.  You can’t stay cooped up in this apartment all the time the way you do.  It’s not healthy.” 
                  Laurie knew there was no disagreeing with her friend when she took that tone of voice.  Besides, it might be fun.  She did enjoy music and dancing.  She could pick up something to wear on her way back from